Fire in the Hole
by jazzyproz
Summary: This is my entry for the 2014 Bones Secret Santa FanFic celebration! Early in B&B's relationship, an 'incident' at the lab pushes Booth into alpha-mode. Rated M for a reason, folks. Admittedly kind of long for a OneShot, but I wasn't willing to break it into 2 chapters...


**A/N Hello and welcome! **

**This is my entry for the Bones Secret Santa FanFic 2014 **

**This was my second year of participating in this event and I enjoyed it this year every bit as much as I enjoyed it last year! **

**I hope my Secret Santa recipient enjoys the piece I put together. I know it's long…but JazzyMuse kinda went a little crazy here, I hope you don't mind too terribly! **

**This year, my Secret recipient is…. /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ *insert drum roll here* \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

**RionaLeprechaunWingsGallagher (aka Riona_Gallagher** **on Twitter)**

**Many thanks to SarahInPrint for putting together this year's FanFic exchange, I imagine it is a lot of work to try to match peoples' likes and dislikes while handing out assignments. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. **

**Riona had three wishes and I actually tried to combine them together, hopefully with some degree of success. **

**Her wishes included: **

**Characters I Wish For:** **Booth & Brennan; Wendell & Hodgins; Booth**

**Please Include:** **Romance, Fluff, Happiness; Experiments; Backstory, Good Memories **

**Maximum Rating:** **M**

**So, Riona, I hope that you, and everyone else (!), enjoy this little tale I wove together! **

**Disclaimer: As hard as it is to believe, I STILL don't have any rights to Bones or its characters… But oh, how I *do* love writing stories about them. **

**B/B/B/B**

"WENDELL!" Hodgins called out from the platform, unable to locate the intern after checking in all the usual places.

"_Doctor." _Pause_. "Hodgins_!" Cam growled at her resident entomologist. "Is the yelling _really _necessary?" Her eyes narrowed in disapproval when he didn't even look ruffled.

"Well," he shrugged innocently, "yeah… I checked the Ookey Room, the Bone Room, and Limbo. He's no where to be found… I need to find him." Blue eyes flashed humorously in response to the stink-eye that he was receiving from his boss. "I'm done with the remains, he can clean the bones for Dr. B."

Barely holding her temper at the good-natured doctor, Cam simply shook her head and pointed over and behind Hodgins' shoulder.

Turning, he spotted his friend staring down from the railing surrounding the employee lounge. "Oh, there y'are," his grin spread wide. "Didn't even think to check the lounge." He waved. "Hang on, man. Be right up!"

Wendell watched his friend and colleague bound up the stairs that led to the upper level.

"Hey, man, whatcha doin'?" Hodgins greeted his pal with a slap on the shoulder.

The intern pointed over his shoulder. "I just stopped for lunch."

"Oooohhh," the scientist swooned, "what do you have to eat?" Jack walked over to the table and sat down opposite Wendell's seat, hungrily eyeballing the sub sandwich that sat unwrapped, teasing him with the alluring aroma of deli-meat and cheese. "Angie's got me on a low carb, low fat, _zero-freaking-taste_ diet…" He licked his lips. "Oh my God, that smells good…"

"Oh, umm," Wendell answered, feeling a little uncomfortable with the ravenous look Hodgins was tossing towards his food. "Do you, um, want a bite?"

"Well," Jack's hand darted out and snatched half the sub. "If you _insist_… I wouldn't want to insult your generosity…"

"Uhh… I didn't really mean for you to take," he glanced at his friend's expression as he admired the sandwich, "_half…_." He shrugged. "But yeah… if you're," his jaw dropped as Jack bit into the sub and rolled his eyes as if it was the best thing since sex, "y'know, hungry… Sure… enjoy…" The younger man picked up his own half and took a bite, cautiously observing his friend. "I didn't know you needed to be on a diet, Man." He spoke around his mouthful, slightly astonished at the speed with which Jack was scarfing down his acquisition.

"I _don't_!" Hodgins complained as he brushed sandwich crumbs from his labcoat. "Angie seems to think she needs to lose a couple pounds, _which is total bullshit, mind you,_ and she figured that if _she _is on a diet, then _I_ have to be on a diet, too… You know, misery loves company…" He sighed as he savored the sub. "She keeps feeding me salads, and vegetables, and flax seeds, and God-knows-what-else… _Roughage_!" His eyes flared in frustrated disbelief. "Do you know what happens to your bodily functions when all you consume is roughage!?"

"Yeah," Wendell responded flatly. "I get it…"

Over half finished his hijacked sub, Jack nodded towards Wendell's backpack. "What else you got in there, man?"

"Oh, um," Wendell put his sandwich down and opened his pack. "I have a snack bag of Cheese-Crunchies…" He'd barely pulled the baggie from his satchel and Jack snagged it from his hands.

"Ohh-ho-ho…. duuuude." He opened the bag like a starving man, groaning in appreciation as he crunched down on his first bite. "Mmmm…"

Wendell's eyes swiveled slightly, but didn't want to make a bigger deal than necessary about this friend's reactions. "Uh, yeah, and a 'Dew…"

"Oh. My. God…. a REAL soda? Not a diet, or zero calorie, or watered-down poor-substitute…" His bright blues turned up to meet Wendell's, the perfected puppy-dog eyes begging wordlessly.

Wendell simply pushed the twenty-ounce bottle of the highly-caffeinated Mt. Dew across the smooth surface of the table. He watched in stunned silence as the cap was snapped open and a quarter of the contents disappeared in one loud gulp.

"Aah…" Jack smiled as he placed the bottle back down with an appeased hum. "This is the best meal I've had in weeks, man." He winked playfully. "I'll buy you another lunch, Wendell."

"Nah, it's OK. I'll be fine." Not wanting to subject his friend to exposure to food that he wouldn't be able to consume, Wendell decided to wait until he returned home that evening before he would eat again.

"You, ah," he jerked his chin towards the bag again, "got anything else hidden away in there?"

Wendell shook his head. "No." He turned and looked at it with remorse. "Oh, wait, yeah, I do!" He unzipped the back compartment of the bag and started digging deep, below a couple of reference books therein. "I stopped at the drugstore... and found these... on sale." Smiling proudly, he pulled out a one-and-a-half-pound bag of gummy bears.

"Duuude!" Jack's animated face lit up like an over-stimulated child. "I _LOVE _gummies! I haven't had these in, oh jeez, _over a year_!" He grabbed the bag and started to drag it closer.

As the intern watched, the majority of his food ended up closer to Jack than to himself, but he shrugged in humor and tucked into his half sandwich. When he reached across the table for a Cheese-Crunchy, he glared at Jack when the bag was snatched further from his grasp. "Hey! I don't mind _sharing_, but you can't have it _all_!"

By that point, Hodgins was hoarding the small bag, holding it tight to his chest and rolling his shoulders in a _semi-_mock protective stance. He moved his wary gaze up and down Wendell in a very hesitant fashion, as if he were measuring Wendell's worth, uncertain of whether or not he should relinquish his newest acquisition. After a few short moments filled with an angry, narrow-eyed scowl from his compadre, the scientist reluctantly extended the bag of snacks back to its rightful owner. "Sorry," he grunted, "guess I just got a little food-crazed."

Bursting out in a happy chuckle, the younger man emptied half the contents onto his sandwich wrapper and passed the bag back over to his seemingly-starving pal. "It's alright, man. I understand."

They continued to eat in relative silence for another few minutes until Wendell broke the stillness.

"Hey," he swallowed his mouthful. "You think there's something goin' on between Dr. Brennan and Booth?"

Hodgins raised an eyebrow. "You mean something _other _than the two of them circling and sniffing each other like wild animals determining whether or not they should cower and hide, or attack and mount? Because if _that's _what you're talking about, then no… there is nothing else going on between those two that we haven't been watching for the past six years." Jack took another large bite of his sub. "Though I wish they'd get their shit together and just do it, already…."

Wendell laughed. "No, I'm serious. Something's different." Taking a swig of soda, he wiped his hands on his napkin and continued. "Dr. B came to our hockey game on Saturday. I know that's nothing new, but the way she was watching Booth… Whew… _man-alive_, I'm tellin' ya, if I ever have a woman watch me with the same intensity and attention, I swear, I'd never let her leave the bedroom. There was a hunger, a … _possessiveness_ that I'd never seen from her."

"Really?" Hodgins thought for a moment, but almost immediately dismissed the notion. "No. No way. If there was something going on, Dr. B would have told Ange, and Angie would have told me. So no way, nothing's going on there. Not yet, anyway."

"But there's more… At half-time, Mitchell, he's our Left-winger, made a smartass comment to Booth about the other team's Enforcer, Bob Turner, checking out Dr. Brennan. Now, Mitchell and Booth never see eye-to-eye, 'cause Mitchell keeps trying to get Booth to introduce him to Dr. B, but Booth typically ignores him and tells him to fuck-off. But Mitchell said Turner was ogling Dr. B quite a bit when he was sent to the Box. But what made it _worse _was Mitchell _then _said that he couldn't blame Turner because she was looking '_hot enough to melt the whole fucking rink_', and those were his words, _not _mine." He nodded when Hodgins flared his eyes in disbelief.

"Dude, with all that gossip, you guys sound like a bunch of girls." Hodgins laughed.

"Jack, just shut the hell up and _listen_." Wendell ignored the dig and continued. "So anyway, Booth threw Mitchell up against a locker and threatened him that he better keep his mouth shut about his partner. You know, he spewed the same shit he always does, '_show her some fuckin' respect_...' '_who the hell do you think you are_...' '_say it again and I'll kick your ass from here to Jersey_...', blah blah blah." He glanced over his shoulder nervously, not wanting anyone else to hear his observations. "And then Mitchell got all defensive, more of the same crap from him, too. '_You're not her boyfriend...' 'you're the one who always says you two're just partners...' 'I'll say what I want, you don't own her...'_ Same shit, different day. But it really hit the fan when we got back out on the ice and Booth was finally face-to-face with Turner. Man, I'm telling you, Booth went after him like a friggin' rabid dog; tailed him, checked him, high-sticked him, tripped him… You name it, if Booth thought he could get away with it without getting nailed with a Major-Penalty and boxed, he did it. After the game was done, Turner confronted him and Booth went ape-shit. I didn't hear what Turner said about Dr. B, but I'll tell ya what, Booth had Turner's sorry-ass over apologizing to a very confused Dr. Brennan…"

"Are you kidding me? He made this guy apologize to Dr. B and she didn't even know what had happened?"

"I'm serious. She looked confused as hell, but Booth was struttin' like a damn peacock by the time we left."

"I need to come to more of your games, man… I didn't know-" Hodgins was cut off by a terrifyingly close call when he heard his name ring through the air.

"Hodgie?" The saccharine-sweet beckon was carried on the air from the lab-level below as Angela searched for her husband. "Are you up there? What are you doing?"

In a fear-induced bumble, the scientist shoved all of the partially eaten food back at Wendell. "Umm... I'm, uh," he tried in vain the brush all the crumbs from his chest in effort to hide his dietary infidelity. "I'm just talking to Wendell... He's, uhh..." Panicked blue eyes searched for some support from his pal.

"I'm just finishing my lunch, Angela." Wendell called out as he saw the artist's dark hair coming into view as she ascended the staircase behind Hodgins. "And, uhh," he searched his brain for an acceptable excuse to explain away the nervous responses. He tossed an anxious look at Hodgins in warning that he was pulling a veritable blank.

"Umm, yeah," Hodgins turned to Angela, attempting to appear casual and undisturbed. "I was just explaining to Wendell, the benefits of making healthier food choices," he glanced back at his friend to ensure he was receiving the necessary confirmation.

The insightful woman crossed her arms and arched a sceptical eyebrow. "Uh-huh..."

"Yeah," the young intern agreed a little too readily. "And he was telling me that you had a great nutritional plan that he's been," the lie grew exponentially, "_enjoying_... Yeah, he said he's really been enjoying the meals you've forced," he swallowed thickly, "um, I mean _made_ for him..." He spared another glance at Jack and turned the conversation back over to him.

"Yep," Jack forced a smile. "I told him about the vegetable stir-fry and salad we had last night. In fact, Wendell here thinks he should go on a diet, too." An almost evil grin spread across his bearded face because he knew what was coming next.

"Oh, is that so?" Angela eyed her husband and former lover disbelievingly. When they both responded with overzealous nods, she moved closer to the table. "Well, if you really want to make a change in the way you treat your body, the first step in any successful dietary modification routine is the tried-and-true '_out with the old, in with the new_' frame of mind." She swept her arm across the table, collecting all the partially-eaten food, not bothering to ask why Wendell was eating both halves of his sub simultaneously, because she knew the truth already, and she pushed the food down the long table, aiming for the trashcan at the end.

"Wait!" Wendell yelled.

"Not the gummy bears!" Hodgins chimed in at the same time.

Angela froze and looked at the two men suspiciously. "Why not the gummy bears? These things are full of sugar, empty calories, _ninety_-percent carbohydrates and your body gains absolutely _no value _by consuming them. If I am going to help you boys stay on the healthy straight-and-narrow, these things are gonna be the first to go!" She grabbed the bag and brought it over the trashcan while pinning them both with unwavering eyes, daring them to challenge her.

"Wait, Ange," Hodgins held out a hand and willed the hamsters in his brain to run faster around their wheel of plausible excuses. "They're not to eat," he stuttered.

"Excuse me?" Now the artist _knew_ her husband was lying, but wanted to hear his feeble attempt to save what she knew was one of his favorite snacks. Over the past several months, she had purposely avoided purchasing gummies when she grocery shopped, because she knew Jack had no willpower when they were in the house and he would finish an entire bag over the course of one evening. "Besides eating them, what would you _possibly_ do with these things?"

"They're, ahh," Jack stalled, shrugging one shoulder.

Seeing a plausible opportunity to interject, Wendell eagerly chimed in. "For science!" He nodded vigorously. "We're, umm, using them…"

"Exactly!" Jack raised a finger into the air triumphantly. "Angie, baby," he stepped forward, now feeling bold enough to willingly turn on his charm. "You wouldn't want to impede our methods of investigation, right?" He inched his hand closer to the bag, which was now suspended over the open lid of the garbage can. "We, uhh," he eased his fingers around the zip-top bag slowly, as if disarming a dangerous criminal, "need these… These gelatinous little beauties are the prime components of an experiment that Wendell and I have to conduct…"

"Yeah, Jack was just waiting for me to finish eating so we could begin," the blond head nodded readily in agreement, hoping that his friend wasn't digging his internship-grave. "And now, thanks to you," he waved his hand at the chaotic pile of mixed up food which had been doused by the partial contents of an overturned bottle of Mountain Dew, "I don't have to worry about eating the rest of that…" _delicious_, "terrible," _damn, that was a tasty sandwich_, "unhealthy food…" He forced a smile.

"Right," Jack finally ripped the bag from his wife's thin fingers and grinned at the combined brilliance and success of their betrayal. "So, if you'll excuse us," he leaned forward and gave Angela a chaste peck on the cheek, his eyes twinkling in victory, "we have work to do."

"Tell me, Jack," Angela's perfectly shaped eyebrow arched high. "What kind of experiment could you conduct, _using these gummy bears,_ that will aid Booth and Brennan in their investigation?"

Wendell stared at Angela, attempting to freeze his face into a look of shock and disbelief. "Angela!" He huffed in forced-frustration. "There was an _explosion _in the victim's apartment!" He rolled his eyes at his partner-in-crime, hoping that he was picking up on his pal's impromptu excuse. Not wanting to dig them in any deeper than necessary, he didn't explain further, acting as though the artist should simply understand their intentions. The young man turned and grabbed his backpack from where it rested and tossed it over his shoulder. "Ready, Hodgins?"

"Yep, never been more ready, man," Jack sighed and started to follow his friend. As if on a second thought, he spun on his heel and pressed a kiss on Angela's cheek. "We, ahh, gotta get back to work, Babe." He smiled nervously, hoping that she bought the lame, incomplete reasons they blurted out.

Watching her husband turn around again, Angela grabbed the sleeve of his labcoat, stopping him from advancing further. "Hang on there, Hodgie," her saccharine tone returned, warning Hodgins that he wasn't out of hot water yet. "You forgot a little something here," she started to brush her fingertips over his beard. "_Somehow_, you ended up with crumbs in your beard from a sandwich that you _didn't _steal from Wendell… Aaaannnnd," her voice turned sing-song, "your fingertips have inexplicably turned neon-yellow from the Cheese-Crunchies that I'm sure you _haven't _eaten…" Successfully hiding the smirk that was threatening to break free, her dark eyes bore into her husband's, daring him to make up another poor cover-up story. "Weird how Wendell's lunch seems to have ended up _all over you_…"

"I've, uhh," he swallowed thickly, "gotta go, Angie…. Wendell's gonna be…" he gulped, "...waiting… We have an experiment to set up…." He made a quick getaway by backing away from her, nearly tripping over his own feet as he neared the staircase. He raised his eyebrows in one last effort to charm his wife. "I love you, Ange… You look beautiful today…"

Jutting her arm from her side, she pointed towards the Ookey Room. "Go! _Experiment!_"

He turned in place and ran down the stairs, escaping her knowing glare and accusatory disapproval. Jack knew he was going to have some making-up to do, but he started anticipating the idea of making a just-for-fun experiment. Of course, he knew that Wendell would have to start cleaning the bones before they could do anything more. But as he approached the Ookey Room, he had already begun calculating the necessary variables involved with their spur-of-the-moment experiment.

**B/B/B/B**

Angela made her way down the staircase and headed towards her best friend's office, planning to see if Brennan would go have lunch with her. When she approached the Anthropologist's Lair, she heard the hushed tones of her friend speaking with someone on the phone. Ever alert for any indication that her friend might be seeing someone socially, not to mention perpetually frustrated that Brennan and Booth were still doing the same dance they'd been doing for years, with their heads planted firmly up their asses, Angela paused by the open door and listened, not even trying to hide her interest in the one-sided conversation that was not as private as her awkward friend might think.

"_We're simply going to have to wake up earlier from now on if we're going to keep doing that in the mornings… I can't deal with rushing into work at the last minute like I've been doing these past few days… You know I like to be organized before I start my day…"_ Brennan spoke into the phone softly, the sultry alto tone only served to make her statements sound all the more seductive as she chuckled. "_I concur, that was quite… enjoyable… very satisfying, indeed…"_

Angela watched in silent fascination as her friend held the cell phone up to one ear and twisted the fringe of her haphazard ponytail around the fingers of her free hand — a very _**un**__-Brennan-like _mannerism. The artist felt her jaw go slack at her longtime pal's next declaration, just before she stifled a giggle at the genius's complete lack of comprehension of the notion of 'dirty-talk'.

"_If you refrain from unwarranted misbehavior for the remainder of the day, perhaps I will reward you this evening with a sexual favor of your choice… I know how much you enjoy it when I perform fellatio_…" She huffed and became agitated almost immediately. "_That's what I said… I spoke perfectly clear! It appears that you just don't have a clear understanding of the English language…_" The voice on the other end cut off her explanation again. "_The wording was __entirely_ _acceptable! They __are_ _the proper terms!..." _

Angela nearly screamed in excitement as her Brennan-translator was triggered into last-minute-action. _If the lucky guy on the other end of the phone is a good boy today, he's gonna get a blow job tonight_… The little voice in the back of the artist's mind was bursting out in celebratory song, suddenly realizing why their resident anthropologist had been so easily distracted over recent days. Brennan had seemed distant and lost in thought far more often than ever before. When Angela had questioned her best friend, Brennan simply brushed off the concern, explaining that she'd been working on her book late at night, trying to wrap up loose ends before sending it to edit. What Angela clearly understood now, though, was that her tight-lipped pal had simply been conducting hands-on-research for some of her steamier Kathy/Andy scenes. The question remained, however, who was the lucky guy?.

_Oh, Bren_, Angela thought to herself, _you are soooo busted_…_You're gonna come clean, sister, and let me in on your little secret..._. She sashayed into the office, closing the door before making her way over to the desk, where her friend was suddenly trying to end her not-so-private phone call, succeeding with about as much grace as a bull in a China shop, until she finally, and quite abruptly, simply hung up on the poor unsuspecting soul on the other end of the line.

**B/B/B/B**

"Jack, I don't know if this is such a good idea," Wendell eyed his friend nervously, regretting that he ever agreed to this cockamamie scheme.

"Look, you just go start the process of cleaning the bones, and then once that's underway, come back over. By then I'll have everything in order." Jack's eyes sparkled with mischief and excitement. "Remember how much fun it was doing this kinda thing when you were a kid? Well, this'll just be on a larger scale, that's all. It'll be fine." He patted his friend on the shoulder as he ushered him from the room, directing him towards the cleaning station. "It's our job, as the experts, to explore each and every possibility for the explosion… And, since the victim's apartment butts up against a candy factory, this is a _completely_ acceptable and, more importantly, a totally rational experiment…"

"Dude," the intern halted and flared his eyes. "Her apartment was on the same block as a privately-owned-and-operated chocolatier… That hardly justifies blowing up gummy bears… Cam is going to kill us and I'll probably lose my scholarship…"

"What? No way. Uh-uh… That little old man makes and sells _chocolate covered gummies_. We are _completely _justified. _Trust me_." He nodded once in stubborn affirmation, too far invested in the need to fabricate an experiment to backpedal now… He knew if they didn't do _some _sort of experiment, Angela was going to end up kicking his ass for the whole '_Hodgie, you have crumbs_' episode. He needed this experiment as a distraction; besides, he loved having an excuse to blow something up, even if it was only a load of candy. "So you go do your intern-thing so Dr. B knows you're working on it, but come back as soon as you can… I'll wait for you."

Wendell, still uncertain about the validity of their off-the-cuff plan, reluctantly agreed and began the process of cleaning the victim's bones. Once he knew he was at a standstill for the next thirty-five minutes or so, he hurried back into the Ookey Room to see what grand setup his wild-eyed pal had arranged.

**B/B/B/B**

"Brennan, I'm not buying it." Angela folded her arms across her chest. "I heard you! I heard what you said! Now, c'mon, Bren, tell me, who is he?" She put on the sad face, puppy-dog eyes and even tried to play the 'Best Friend Card', but the mulish scientist wasn't budging.

"Angela, I'm telling you, you don't know what you heard. You…" She lifted her chin defiantly. "You shouldn't be eavesdropping on other peoples' conversations, _Angela_! That's socially unacceptable! _You _taught me that!" Brennan's voice started to rise in both volume and pitch. She pushed up from her seat and glared at her best friend. Somewhere deep inside, she knew she was acting irrationally; the girls had always shared tales about their sexual conquests and adventures.

But this time was different... Brennan had readily agreed to his terms — to keep the development of their new relationship quiet for now; for them to explore this new aspect on their own, without having to deal with outside influences, no matter how good the intentions offered by their friends were. The partners agreed that this was theirs to keep private.

For now.

But her friend's dark, psychic-like eyes bored into Brennan's cool blues. The unrelenting, unwavering glare coming from the free-spirited artist was beginning to wear down Brennan's defenses. Dr. Temperance Brennan had the ability to remain strong and independent in the face of pretty much everyone in her life… Everyone except Booth or Angela.

And Angela knew it.

Shrugging her long, dark hair over one shoulder, Angela Montenegro-Hodgins was happy to sit quietly and wait. She was more than willing to bide her time as the clock unwound on the countdown until her friend, unable to resist the pressure, would inevitably resign to confessing the truth.

**B/B/B/B**

"OK," Hodgins grinned when Wendell strolled into the Ookey Room, aka Experiment-Central. "I've got everything ready!" He grabbed Wendell's labcoat lapels, pulling him further into the room while thrusting a pair of safety goggles into his hands. "Now, you _did_ blow up a gummy bear when you were a kid, right?"

Wendell fitted his safety goggles in place and nodded. "Oh hell, yeah. This was always one of my favorite experiments. This, _and _liquefying gummies with my chemistry instructor's sonicator." His smile was infectious as he recalled fond memories of his mom giving him hell for adding _two _gummies to the molten chlorate rather than just one, which resulted in a burst of the most glorious lilac flame he'd ever seen, _up to that point,_ in his young life. Of course the ultimate ramification was the end of his at-home chemistry lab, since he not only blew up the gummy, melted his test tube and created a noxious-smelling odor that lingered in the house for days, but also brought the fire department to his front door, lights blazing and sirens blaring in all their glory, thanks to the nosy elderly neighbor who was certain the Bray's basement had been engulfed in lethal gasses and flames.

Hodgins watched as his pal got lost in a memory before finally coming back to the present, and when he was certain Wendell was back at full attention, he jerked his head towards the elaborate setup at the opposite end of the room. "Wanna see what I came up with?"

The men walked over to the protective plexiglass guard as Jack explained what he had arranged.

"I figured, you know, that only a couple of gummies would _never _provide enough data to give an accurate representation of the extent of damage the victim's apartment sustained." His grin spread menacingly. "So I decided that we would use the whole bag."

"Dude, that's gonna be too big... Isn't it?" Wendell's forehead wrinkled in worry. "I mean, I understand that you want to collect the necessary evidence in an appropriate ratio scale, but…"

"No, no, don't worry," Jack interrupted in exasperation. "I've got everything under control. Would you just trust me?!" He nodded and pulled the intern closer as he pointed to the layout, speaking rapidly as he justified his scheme. "See? I calculated the quantity of potassium chlorate powder necessary in relation to the volume of gummies, that will allow us to replicate the force of the explosion, on a much more manageable scale, of course. And I've reprogrammed this robotic arm so that once the powder has been melted to the correct temperature and consistency, it will allow us to remotely dump the candy into the graduated cylinder without putting us in direct contact with any of the variables…" He admired his handiwork with a smug, satisfied smirk and declared, almost reverently, "Berthollet would be so proud…" As the _Father of KClO__3_ (the periodic chemical makeup for potassium chlorate), Claude Berthollet was one of Hodgins' heroes. Berthollet was one of the first chemists to recognize the characteristics of a reverse reaction, and hence, _chemical equilibrium_ was born, and without that equilibrium, the balance of life would be askew. Shaking himself from his prideful thoughts, he clapped loudly. "Ready?"

"Uhh, sure… If you're certain the explosion will be contained?" Wendell was still uncomfortable with the large quantity of gummies that Jack was planning to use. "I mean, we could always do a smaller experiment and then feed the variables and results into the Angelatron to come up with provable numbers…" He arched an eyebrow and lowered his voice. "You and I both know that the victim didn't die in a gummy-bear-induced-explosion… You just wanna blow something up…"

"Wha-? What?" Jack feigned shock. "I can't believe you have such a low opinion of me!"

With a deep sigh, Wendell shook his head and simply agreed. "Ok, let's do this. I've gotta finish cleaning the bones in less than twenty minutes."

**B/B/B/B**

Brennan could feel her resolve slipping away. She continued to pound away at her keyboard, grading and correcting submissions from her students, sending emails and taking care of additional research for a colleague in Colorado. But the whole time she was working, she could feel Angela's unremitting glare boring into the side of her head. In her imagination, she could hear countless conversations they'd shared over the years, comparing stories and collecting evidence related to sexual adventures. She could also hear, in her mind, the innumerable times that Angela lectured her about Booth and questioned why she never 'hopped a ride on that train.' Brennan almost felt as if she was betraying her friendship with Angela by not sharing her new reality with her longtime friend. Coming to a decision, she turned and exhaled sharply.

"Angela," her voice was calm and firm. "If I tell you, you have to promise not to say anything."

Angela's face lit up. "Whatever you want, Sweetie. I'm all ears and no voice… I promise."

The anthropologist folded her hands on the desk and squared her shoulders. Closing her eyes for a moment of internal strength, she took a breath and opened them, finally ready to talk.

The artist's excitement was palpable as she leaned forward in her seat, gripping her knees in anticipation. "Who is he, Bren?"

As Brennan opened her mouth to speak, a muffled '_Fire in the hole!' _could be heard through her closed door, and was promptly followed by an immense explosion filling the lab and setting off smoke alarms and biochemical safely sirens, which, in turn, sealed the outside doors from anyone entering and exiting.

The ladies rushed from Brennan's office and joined the small crowd that was gathering just outside the Ookey Room, just as Hodgins and Wendell came staggering out into the lab, not bothering to use the door, but instead, stepping through the remnants of broken window panes.

"We're alright!"

"We're OK!"

The men called out simultaneously. Their hair was standing on end, a bit charred in places and Hodgins' safety goggles hung from his ear by one arm. Wendell visibly shrank when he saw the shocked and angry glare that Cam was aiming in his direction and he raised his hands in defense.

"Dr. Hodgins did the math! I merely supplied the gummy bears!"

"Jack! Are you alright?" Angela was immediately in front of her husband, removing the dangling glasses and running her hands through his smoking, curly locks.

"Yeah, yeah… I'm fine Ange." Jack huffed as he turned back and looked at the ruins that were his beloved Experiment-Central.

Once Cam ascertained that no one was harmed, she proceeded to read the riot act to the two man-boys who had managed to have her lab locked down due to their foolishness. As the crowd started to thin, an employee that remained nameless to Brennan due to her limited interactions with the young man, circled back to get the anthropologist's attention.

"Agent Booth is outside the sealed doors, Dr. Brennan. He is demanding to see you or else he said he'll shoot his way in..." The student swallowed visibly. "He looked serious…"

"I'm certain he is," she grumbled. Hurrying away from the scene, Brennan strode towards the glass doors, anxious to reach them before Impatient Booth took out his frustrations on the entrance to her sanctuary. Torn between staying behind to defend her husband, or following Brennan to see if her suspicions were correct, Angela opted to quietly shadow Brennan as she aimed in the direction of where her partner was forced to remain outside the lab.

Pressing the intercom button by the door, Brennan proceeded to assure Booth that everything was fine, no one was hurt and '_of course it was a valid experiment; Dr. Hodgins and Mr. Bray would never be so reckless as to conduct an unnecessary test_.'

Booth paced outside the sealed doors like a caged animal, as if _he_ were the one locked inside. His gait was angry and his shoulders tight. "What the hell, Bones? I was almost to the doors and suddenly the sirens went crazy and then these things slammed shut!" He paused his steps just long enough to pound his fist against the glass door. He drew a deep breath before pinning her with a hard stare. "Are you sure you're alright?" He shook his head once and got closer to the microphone. "Because I swear, if you're hurt..."

"Booth," Brennan kept her voice as quiet as possible while speaking through the speaker. "I'm fine. Everyone is fine." She tilted her head and shrugged a little. "Well, Dr. Hodgins and Mr. Bray may have suffered from a few small burns, and I believe they will both need their hair trimmed a bit off the top, but overall there were no injuries."

Booth's attention shifted as he saw movement behind his partner. "_You_!" He pressed his thick finger against the glass and yelled loud enough that the intercom became inconsequential. "Bug-boy! If I find out you endangered my partner unnecessarily I will take out my gun and _shoot_ _you_!"

"Booth," Brennan hissed, trying to calm him. "I told you.."

But he cut her off as Wendell entered his line of sight. "And YOU! I expect better common sense from you!" His finger continued to pound the heavy glass door. "What the hell were you thinking, letting Hodgins talk you into blowing shit up!?" He watched as his hockey teammate bowed his head in embarrassment as he continued to follow Hodgins and Dr. Saroyan onto her office.

Punching the door in frustration, Booth jumped back in surprise when they started to open.

"Is it safe?" He asked cautiously before stepping foot into the Jeffersonian Medico-Legal Lab.

"Of course," Brennan smiled. "You know how this works, Booth… They automatically seal in case anything hazardous is released as a result of an …. incident. But once the sensors register that everything is normal, the lockdown is lifted."

Taking two steps towards his partner, he couldn't stop his arms from reaching out to her. "Bones," he whispered against the side of her head as he pulled her close.

She welcomed his embrace, forgetting where they were for a moment. "I'm ok." After a few quiet moments, she pulled back and looked at him, her eyes reminding him that they probably shouldn't be hugging.

He dropped his arms immediately and fell into step beside her as they walked towards her office. Neither noticed the shadow that was trailing them as they moved through the cavernous lab. Once they were inside her space, he flopped down on the couch and let his head fall back against the softness.

Sitting down at her desk to save the work she'd been conducting before the explosion interrupted, she glanced sideways. "What are you doing here? I thought you had a meeting,"

He raised his head from the sofa and looked at her, admiring the pretty flush that filled her cheeks with a healthy glow. "Well, I got worried..." He pushed up and approached her desk. "I wanted to know why you hung up on me earlier." He leaned against the flat surface of her workspace with balled fists. "I hope I didn't make you mad... I was just teasing..." A miniature version of his charm smile started to form on his lips. "Personally, I think your nerdy interpretation of phone sex is hot as hell..."

His compliment was interrupted by a squeal from outside the office and he shot straight upright, squaring his posture and staring harshly at Angela as she rushed into Brennan's office and proceeded to throw her arms around the seated scientist, nearly knocking her out of her seat. "Sweetie! I'm so happy for you!" She turned and readied to hug Booth, but he extended a hand and backed away.

"Whoa-ho-ho, wait a minute..."

"Ange," Brennan's exasperation was clear. "You _must_ stop eavesdropping at my office door!" She turned to Booth. "_She_ is the reason I disconnected our call so hastily, Booth."

The agent shot a panicked look at his partner but his unspoken question was answered by Angela instead, as she sidled up beside him, a little too close for his comfort, forcing him to back away.

"Don't worry, G-man," she winked, "I don't think your little temper tantrum out there kicked you off the nice list today... In fact," she shifted her weight, tilting her hips, "I thought your alpha-display was pretty damn sexy... I dare say you've still earned your reward for later… Maybe even a bonus treat..." She turned and sashayed towards Brennan's desk with a satisfied smile. "It's about time you two pulled your heads outta your asses..."

Swallowing thickly at the fact that Angela knew their treasured secret, (and realizing that there was no way in hell the rest of the lab wouldn't know before the end of the day), Booth moved towards the door. "I gotta go... I have a meeting I need to get to..."

"Booth!" Brennan's audible panic stopped him in his tracks. Terrified that she'd done something irreparable to their relationship by letting the dog out of the crate, _she mentally congratulated herself, thinking she'd correctly used the turn of phrase featuring a domesticated animal being released from its unjust imprisonment as a metaphor for revealing a secret prematurely,_ she feared she had angered her partner. Or worse, she worried that she had lost his trust. "I didn't break my word, Booth. I didn't tell... I promise; the canine is still secured in its cage..." It's true she _almost_ told, but in the end, she hadn't confessed anything to her friend. "Please believe me..." Her plea was soft, vulnerable and blatantly fearful.

Booth closed the distance between them with two rapid strides, a little confused by her canine comment, but he opted to let it go for now but to ask her about it later. He cradled her face tenderly. "Of course I believe you, Bones." He pressed a soft kiss to her lips. "I trust you completely, Baby."

She clung to his biceps and stretched for another kiss, inwardly accepting that she was officially addicted to his mouth. "I'll pick up dinner on the way home tonight, Booth." She spoke against his lips and nipped playfully. When he nodded, she loosened her hold on his arms and slid them down to his wrists, letting his much larger hands engulf hers. "See you around 6:30?"

"Yeah, Bones, sounds good. I should be home by then..." He pressed another kiss to her swollen lips before he released her and turned to leave. When he spun on his heel, he realized they had a much bigger audience than just Angela; everyone and everything in the lab seemed to have come to a screeching halt as the occupants stared through the glass wall of his partner's office, a mixture of disbelief and amazement, relief and envy danced across several faces. Booth turned back to his partner and pursed his lips. "Better make it closer to 7:00, Bones. I think I'd better ask to see Cullen today... I might be a little late."

She nodded as he left and watched his retreating form with admiration.

"So, ah," Angela interrupted her friend's stupor. "Where is 'home', exactly? Are you guys already living together?"

"No," Brennan's brow wrinkled at her friend's assumption. "This week, 'home' is his place... Last week home was my place... And the weeks before that, we split time." She paused and smiled softly, looking down at her hands where a small note was crinkled in her grasp after having been pushed there by her partner. She knew that it would be a little love note from Booth; he tended to randomly leave one-line sentences laying around for her to find, and he had obviously carried one in with him because he slipped it to her before he made his exit. Not wanting to read it with an audience, she tried in vain to control her blushing cheeks and slid it into her pocket, resuming the topic at hand. "I find that I am very comfortable in Booth's apartment... It feels very..." She searched for the right words and raised her eyes to meet Angela's. "Homey."

"Wait, uhh, honey, did you say weeks? _Weeks, as in plural_? Exactly how long have you been keeping this from me, Bren?!"

"Five weeks... We've been together for five weeks..." Her smile reached all the way up to her pale eyes, her face lit up like Angela had never seen.

"Oh,Sweetie," the artist made herself comfortable on the couch. "We _so_ need to talk. You owe me, Bren... And you owe me good..."

**B/B/B/B**

"He wasn't even surprised, Bones," Booth called into the bedroom as he towel dried his hair in the bathroom. "In fact, he already had the Interdepartmental Relationship Disclosure Form filled in, he was just waiting on the dates..." He popped his head out the door and into the bedroom, where his partner sat on the bed, her pillows piled high behind her so she could sit up while applying cocoa-butter to her long, pale legs. He nearly choked at the sight, still occasionally caught off guard that they were finally together. A broad smile broke out across his handsome face. "He says congrats. Said he's been waiting for years to fill in the official dates."

Brennan turned her attention to where Booth stood in the doorway and caught her breath. He was still slightly damp from his shower and his towel hung low and snug at his hips. His chest was smooth, and tan, and with even the slightest movement, the thick muscles beneath his skin rippled enticingly. Finally finding her voice, she questioned him. "You're sure they won't split us up, right? I want to be sure everything is approved. I won't work with another agent..."

"Nope," he tossed the towel he'd used on his head in the general direction of the hamper, not really caring where it landed, and strode into the room, his swagger confident as he eyed her hungrily. "They're not gonna split us up. Like I said, Cullen was expecting it." He shrugged a little. "Hacker was slightly taken back, but that's his problem." He sat on the bed in front of her and ran his hand along her smooth, partially-moisturized leg while he moved it to rest across his lap. Holding his open palm to her for some lotion, he continued. "He has a thing for you…" His calloused fingers and wide palms trailed over her soft skin, spreading the moisturizer starting at her ankle and working up to her thigh and then back down again.

"Booth," Brennan didn't believe his claim. "That was _years _ago… Andrew hasn't made any advances towards me since…" she rolled her eyes in thought… "Well, oddly enough, I think it was the _last _time you were locked out of the lab and you _did _shoot your way in... I highly doubt he still has feelings for me. I was pretty clear in my explanation that I was _not _interested in him." She smiled at her partner, wondering if her brief encounter with his boss still bothered him.

"Nope… You're the _one-who-got-away_, Bones," he leaned in and kissed her softly. "You'd be the _one-who-got-away _for any man who lost you…"

She blushed at his words, uncharacteristically affected by his attentions. "Stop," she pushed him softly but then pulled him back towards her, wanting to be close. "I didn't get away from you," she teased playfully and shifted so that her long legs were wrapped loosely around his seated body.

"No way, Bones," Booth toyed with the hem of her sinfully skimpy shorts. "I wasn't about to let you get too far." He leaned in again and pressed his mouth over hers, slipping his tongue into her sweet warmth as his hand slid further up her thigh, finding its way under her shorts immediately. When he felt that she was bare beneath her pajamas, the animal inside roared to life and he flexed his fingers into the soft flesh of her curvy hip. His other hand wormed between her body and the pillow at her back, pulling her away from it and down further towards him. Once she was settled on her back, Booth maneuvered his body until he was looming over her, his towel precariously close to falling off and his fingers itching to rip the teasingly thin clothes from her body.

Brennan traced the outlines and contours of his biceps and shoulders as her pale eyes studied her perfect specimen. When he lowered his face to nuzzle against the crook of her neck she craned her head to the side, allowing him the access she knew he loved. While he lavished her skin with urgent, needy wet kisses, Brennan relaxed her mind and just let her body _feel_. The partners had been intimate for only five weeks, so on one hand, many things still felt new; but on the other hand, she realized, _so many things_ felt familiar, and fulfilling, and perfect.

The smell of her partner just after he showered was one of her favorite Booth-smells - it had always been. But now, being able to press her face against his warm, damp skin, she knew it was better than anything she had ever imagined. The strength and roughness of his hands were familiar to her, the protection and warmth they offered had always been welcome, but the tenderness and skillful manipulations that those same hands displayed for her in the privacy of their bedroom were overwhelming new sensations to which she wasn't certain she would ever grow entirely accustomed. The rasp of his tongue, the nips of his smooth teeth, the tightly coiled power he kept under close wraps…that was all new, and wonderful, and addicting. Brennan felt as though she was spinning and suddenly she needed control; not dominance, just control. She found that, quite contrary to any of her previous love affairs, she really enjoyed Booth's domineering alpha tendencies in the bedroom. But _sometimes _she was troubled at the instantaneous way she lost control of herself when she was with Booth, like she was out of touch, and that concerned her.

Grasping for just a touch of that authority, Brennan leveraged herself and flipped Booth onto his back before he knew what was happening, and the lithe scientist settled herself over his center, straddling his hips comfortably. With her hands spread wide, she ran them from his bellybutton up to his suprasternal notch and back down, watching with lustful eyes as his prominent Adam's Apple bobbed in reaction to her touch.

"I love the way you look, Booth," she spoke quietly, her deep alto timbre sending shivers through his body, "and the way you feel…"

As she explored the strong plane of his chest, Booth's fingers tugged at the bottom hem of her strappy tanktop, sliding it up enough to expose a sliver of the porcelain pale skin of her tummy. "Mmm," he growled. "Not nearly as much as I love feeling your eyes and your hands on me, Baby…" He tugged the threadbare shirt up further, until the full under swells of her breasts came into view. "And _certainly _far less than I love touching you, Bones…"

She felt his stomach muscles contract as he pulled himself up until he was sitting at the perfect height so he was able to nip and lick at the sweet skin he found. Brennan held firm to his shoulders, helping to support his somewhat awkward position and she let him run his tongue along her flesh. She was a little surprised when he released her and laid back against the pillows again, his hands spanning around her ribcage. Her stomach metaphorically flipped at the dark eyes that were raking across the portion of her torso that was bare to his vision.

"Take this off, Bones," his index finger flicked the bunched hem of the soft material. "Let me see you…"

Without hesitation, she lowered and crossed her arms, slowly dragging the offending article upwards, watching _him _watch _her _as she moved. She was fascinated at the way his jaw ticked, the flare of his nostrils and his sharp inhalation when she was finally revealed to his ravenous gaze. Her partner was the epitome of masculinity, the standard against whom she measured all other males. His ebony irises trailed along her curves and swells, cataloguing everything, memorizing every freckle, every dimple and every imperfection marring her skin.

One of the things she loved to do when he was focused so fully on her, just as he was then, was attempt to distract him. With her mind racing to find something to say, she burst out with a reminder of what happened at the lab.

"So Hodgins and Wendell were given corrective actions for their behavior today. As it turned out, the experiment _was _unnecessary…" Her strong fingers massaged his waist while she kept her back ramrod straight and shoulders squared, pressing her breasts outward proudly.

"Hmm…" he grunted noncommittally, focusing on the movement of her belly as she spoke. He traced his thick finger around her bellybutton, smirking when she squirmed under his touch.

"And Hodgins has agreed to pay for the damage to the lab…"

"Mmm-hmm…" His finger trailed straight down until it met the waistband of her shorts.

"I cleansed myself with Angela today," she arched an eyebrow and waited for him to catch up. "I figured if you were going to inform Cullen, I should at least tell my best friend."

His eyes raised to her face as he rolled her statement around in his mind. "You _came clean,_ Bones… You didn't _cleanse_."

"Yeah," she smiled knowingly. "That's what I meant…"

With a playful growl, Booth flipped them back to their original position, where she was spread out beneath him, teasing him with her mere presence, not to mention her softness… her sweet scent... her corny sense of humor... her husky laugh…

"Do you have any idea how in love with you I am?" He lowered to his elbows, so he could cradle her head. "I meant what I said to Jack… If you had been hurt by one of his hairbrained explosions, I would've shot him…"

"Booth, I don't want you to shoot anyone… Jack sometimes does irrational, impulsive things, but all in all, he is a brilliant scientist." She tilted her head sideways a little. "There've been many times when he was the one offering the final piece to one of our puzzles…" Her voice trailed off as his mouth descended on her throat again. "And he's been a good friend…"

"There is only," he sucked the skin beneath her earlobe, "one," he licked at her with the flat of his tongue, "brilliant scientist," he nibbled the length of her neck down to her shoulder, "that I want to discuss, Bones." He sucked hard, certain he was marking her and not at all ashamed of doing it. "And I promise you," he soothed the sting of the fresh brand with a soft kiss, "it's _not_ Jack Hodgins." He pulled back and looked down at her. "I won't tolerate talk of another scientist in my bed." He grinned because he knew all about her little distraction game. He had figured it out by their second week together, but he continued to play along, loving her playfulness.

As soon as Brennan saw the crooked smile peek out across his mouth, she knew she'd been caught. She reached up and palmed his chiseled face, pressing her cool palms against his cheeks. "I love you, Booth."

With a soft growl at her declaration, the agent claimed her lips while sliding one hand down her body, thumbing her sleep shorts and tugging them low. Once her body was bare, Booth sat back on his haunches and simply looked at her, admiring the healthy flush that blossomed along her tall length and smirking in smug satisfaction with the way he affected her. Her pale flesh was aglow with a gorgeous shade of pink, her breaths were labored. As his eyes moved along every contour of her strong, feminine frame, he felt himself growing impossibly harder. Wanting to make this sweet agony last as long as possible, he ran his palms along her thighs, up over her hips, waist and torso until he reached her armpits, where he proceeded to palm her biceps and push her arms up above her head.

"You know what today is?" He spoke against her lips.

Nipping him and desperate for more, she didn't think beyond basic reasoning skills. "Friday." She arched her neck, trying to connect to his mouth as he pulled back.

"Well, yeah," he grinned. "But more specifically, today marks the beginning of Week Six." He gave in and kissed her pouting lips. Intertwining their fingers on the pillow above her head, he pulled back. "You know what that means?"

"It means that we've been engaging in _and enjoying_ coitus together for a full five weeks, Booth." She smarted playfully, knowing that while he pretended to hate her verbiage, he was actually turned on. "Often two or three times a day..."

Booth glanced down at his hot little nerd and chuckled. "Yeah, that's exactly what it means." He nuzzled against her sweet skin, loving the way she smelled, the way she tasted and the way she felt. The chemical combination that made up Temperance Brennan was lethal to him, yet he was unable to resist anything about her. He licked, and nipped, and sucked playfully until she was squirming beneath his body, revving him up even more.

"But," he spoke quietly against her ear, feeling her shiver as his breath tickled her skin. "It means I get to re-enact that first night... I get to take my time with you..."

Brennan felt her breath gush from her lungs at hearing his intentions. The first night they were together intimately will forever be seared into her memory as the single most intense night of her life. The mere idea of her partner taking that kind of time to deliberately torture her with delicious anticipation nearly made her climax, and he hadn't even touched her. "Oh," is all she could muster. "Really?" She breathed against the masculine skin of his shoulder, where she could crane her neck and manage to reach with her swollen lips.

"Mm-hmm," he pressed their conjoined hands deep into the pillow and settled a little more of his suspended weight against her hips, the knot of his towel pressing against her belly. "All. Night. Long." He punctuated each word with a kiss as he started to move south, settling his lips against her straining breasts, which were practically begging for attention.

He teased his lover by placing wet, open mouthed kisses on her curvy swells, purposely avoiding her pretty little nipples until he feared she would either explode or threaten bodily harm against him for taking too much time. When he finally pulled one into the warmth of his mouth, he released their intertwined fingers, knowing she would keep her arms where they were, and he palmed her, measuring the now-pleasantly-familiar weight of her perfect curves filling his hands. He lavished an equal amount of attention on each diamond-tipped nub until his perpetually-poised genius begged in earnest for more, rotating her hips until her core came in contact with the roughness of the terrycloth towel.

Brennan thought she was going to lose her mind. Booth had become an expert at knowing her body in the relatively short amount of time he'd been studying her reactions to his ministrations. He knew where to touch her for the most explosive reaction, how gentle to be when she'd had a bad day and simply needed to be held, and exactly how to bring her to the brink of ecstasy and back again with nothing more than his mouth and voice. Most importantly, she trusted how he seemed to simply _know_ her and innately how to take care of her.

"Booth," she panted into the quiet of the room. "_Please…_"

"I'm right here, Baby…" His calloused, masculine hands swept down her sides expertly, settling on her hips as he rocked back to his knees just long enough to lose the towel from around his waist. He had intended to dote on her longer, to draw their evening out into an exquisitely delectable round of climaxes, but in truth, they were both so caught up in the sheer emotion of going public with their relationship, he didn't want to wait any more than she did.

When she brought her hands down and reached for him, not liking him so far from her grasp, Booth crawled back up her body, pausing only long enough to press a soft kiss to the silky canvas of her tummy. "I'll always be right here, Bones," he nuzzled against her throat when she whimpered uncharacteristically.

"I don't believe," she gasped when he sucked her skin hard enough that she knew he was marking her again, "in absolutes, Booth…"

"That's OK, Baby," he reached down and hooked one arm firmly under her long, milky leg before doing the mirror image to her other, until her knees were nestled comfortably in the crooks of his elbows. "I believe enough for both of us." The Perpetual Romantic pulled back just far enough to look down into Brennan's lust-darkened eyes as he rocked forward. In one smooth, well-rehearsed movement, Booth was buried deep within her welcoming heat. The fact that he slid in so easily on the first stroke, with no physical priming, was a testament to the effect he had on her body and he felt his tightly reined control fraying at the edges.

"I ain't goin' nowhere, Bones," he growled through clenched jaws. "_That's_ an absolute you can believe in..." He rocked back and forward again, building a rhythm that they both knew well until he was pounding in time to meet his lover's upward thrusts. When Booth felt the familiar tingle at the base of his spine, he altered his angle of entry just enough, so he knew he would rub along her upper wall and he licked at the shell of Brennan's ear.

"Come on, Baby," he nipped her perfect little earlobe. "Let go for me, Bones…" When he started to feel her muscles fluttering all around him, he pushed harder and deeper, pressing against her cervix with each powerful thrust. "Cum for me, Temperance."

She shattered, his gentle, breathy command sending her careening over the edge. Brennan's strong, wiry fingers bit into the flesh of Booth's shoulders as she held on, anchoring herself to her partner while she metaphorically left her body to ride the powerful waves of her climax. As the ebb and flow subsided, she met Booth's slight rolling motion and pulled him down until he was covering her completely. Untangling her legs from his arms, the anthropologist shifted until they were wrapped around Booth's narrow hips, crossing her ankles at the small of his back. She pulled him deep into her, wishing they could break those laws of physics that Booth had referenced years before, where they might actually occupy the same space. When she slid her hand up the back of his head and into his messy spikes, she pulled him down so she could kiss and nip the strong edge of his jaw.

"Booth," she breathed as he pushed harder into her. "I love you." She knew that little three-word phrase was typically sufficient to push him over the edge; Booth admitted that he loved hearing her say that to him, having long ago given up all hopes of ever convincing her that love was even real.

Brennan had surprised him one chilly evening, fairly early in their relationship, while watching an old Humphrey Bogart movie on AMC and snuggling on his couch beneath a blanket his Grams had crocheted for him just before he left for the Army. "_Booth_," she had said during a particularly quiet part of the film. "_I think I am in love with you_."

That night, and ever since, whenever she confessed her feelings, she could hear how his breath would catch, and he would often comment, _in an_ _over-dramatically Boothy-way of course,_ that his heart nearly exploded when she declared her love for him. And when the words were whispered huskily while making love, he would almost always shatter above her, around her and into her completely.

This night was no different. The words, whispered into his ear in her rich, alto voice, hit that perfect nerve and he started driving into her with abandon - and with a crystal clear purpose in sight. Craning his head so he could latch onto the milky skin that had served to drive him to near-insanity for years with its teasing scent, and silky softness, and innocent pallor, he started to uncoil. He suckled and nipped as his hips rolled back and forth in a rhythm the partners had perfected during their short time as lovers.

"Baby," Booth groaned.

"Yes," she husked, welcoming him into her body in ways she'd never anticipated ever letting anyone near. "Booth..."

The agent's body went rigid, the relative and very short-lived 'calm before the storm,' told her just how close he'd been. With a deep, primal grunt, Booth felt himself explode inside her, bright white flashes of light blinded him from behind tightly closed eyelids. He fisted the sheets it a fierce grip, nearly tearing holes in them. From somewhere deep in his chest, animalistic noises and growls escaped, and sporadically, they resembled words that may or may not have been terms of endearment interspersed with expletives vulgar and colorful enough to rightfully land him in confessional for a week.

But he didn't care.

All Seeley Booth cared about was how to keep this woman of his dreams happy for the rest of their lives, how to keep her entertained enough that she wouldn't grow bored with him and how to convince her that they were, indeed, destined to be together until their last dying breaths. He was smitten-in-love with this astronomically-intelligent genius and there was no going back. And as he felt the last of what he could give to her drain from his body, he remembered that they didn't need to hide it any longer. They could be open about their feelings and their relationship, as long as they maintained a professional demeanor when on the job. Booth hummed in appreciative approval at the way her soft hands swept across his body, and he rolled to the side, pulling her along so she would lay against him.

She rested on his chest, letting her cheek press against the spot where she could feel his heartbeat. As Brennan tried to regulate her breathing, she listened to the life pumping through her partner's body, heard the way he was also trying to control his elevated state and she relished the feeling of completeness she experienced whenever they were together. Though she'd had many lovers in her life, Temperance Brennan had never felt so whole as she did with Booth in her life.

She got lost in her silent thoughts, remembering the many ways she fought against him over the years as he burrowed deeper and deeper behind her carefully constructed walls. She could clearly see all the hundreds of innuendos and could've-been moments, and for an instant, she felt the familiar pang of regret that she hadn't trusted him sooner.

When she lifted her head from his chest, Booth chuckled at the tickling sensation caused by her long hair dragging across his pec, where it had fanned out when she not-so-ceremoniously flopped against him to catch her breath. He opened his dark, sleepy eyes and moved his head so she was silhouetted against the overhead light. He could tell she had something to say, but she was uncertain of how to voice it.

"What are you thinking?" He asked quietly, his voice thick and deep.

"What are _you _thinking?" She countered, having heard his quiet sigh moments before while his fingers danced lightly along the length of her spine.

One side of his mouth curled, the dimple that so few people ever saw peeked out briefly. "Hmm," he hummed contentedly and let his head fall back against the pillow again after pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. "I was just thinking about how much better my life is with you in it…."

"Booth," she complained, thinking he was just trying to charm her.

"I'm serious, Bones," he turned his head to look at her. "I've had some pretty iconic and memorable moments in my life… But the day I walked into your lecture hall at AmU? That became my _defining _moment, without a doubt." He reached down and tugged the sheet up over their cooling bodies, pulling her close into his side after shifting so he could better see her. "You helped me quit gambling my paychecks away… You and the squints helped me move up the ladder in the bureau… Having you as a partner made me want to be a better father to Parker and an overall better man…" He brushed a lock of hair from her eyes. "You've helped in my endeavor to even up my crazy-ass cosmic balance sheet… You keep me on my toes and you don't put up with my shit... Not to mention the times you saved my life, Bones… Hell," he shook his head slightly, thinking of his close calls. "I could've been dead at the hands of Gallagher, blown up in a decommissioned Naval ship, or simply an unfortunate victim of a damn brain tumor…"

At the mention of his tumor, Brennan reached up and touched his forehead tenderly. "I was quite frightened, Booth. I never told you just how worried I was… I wanted you to remain as calm as possible."

"I knew you were, Bones. I could see it. I don't think I ever told you how much I appreciated you going into that operating room with me. I knew you wouldn't be able to actually do anything… But I just wanted to know you were near." He caught a tear as it spilled from her eye. "Don't cry, Baby."

After a few quiet moments during which the partners touched and traced random patterns on each other's skin, stole kisses and murmured promises of devotion, Brennan turned her bright blue eyes up to her partner. "Booth, I want to ask you a question."

"Alright." He kept his voice quiet, sensing that she was nervous about whatever was on her mind.

"That time… when you had your tumor… Do you remember our..._plans..._ from before you had the surgery?"

"Of course."

"You never said anything afterwards… so I didn't know if you remembered." Her flattened hand balled into a tiny fist, but remained resting lightly on his skin.

"I never said anything because you didn't bring it up." He shrugged one shoulder. "Figured you had changed your mind. I didn't blame you… I could probably pass that kinda genetic shit onto a child, so…" He rolled his lips between his teeth in thought. "So I didn't press the issue. I kinda saw myself as damaged goods by then..."

"You're not damaged goods, Booth," she rebutted immediately. "I didn't bring it up because I didn't want to upset you. You were very confused after your coma, and I was afraid of revisiting the topic and scaring you away." She stroked his cheek, loving the masculine roughness against her soft fingers. "Would you," she swallowed nervously, "ummm… Do you think you would ever be interested in trying -"

"Absolutely," he interrupted, not even needing her to finish the question. "If you want to, then hell yeah, I'm in." He couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his lips when he saw her hesitant eyes brighten. "But," he wanted to lay just one ground rule, and when he knew he had her attention, he leaned in and spoke against her irresistible mouth. "This time, we're gonna do it the old fashioned way... None of that clinical bullshit…" He nipped at her grinning lips. "It'll be you," he sucked her bottom lip between his and moaned at her sweetness, "and me," he licked along her upper lip, following the gentle outline. "And we'll make one gorgeous, charming and _fucking brilliant _baby." His mouth descended onto hers fully, claiming what was his and offering himself to her.

When her partner slowly pulled back, Brennan felt dazed and bleary-eyed. When she could finally focus once more on his handsome face, she met his obvious joy and excitement with an uncharacteristic giggle as she rolled on top of him, straddling his waist in one fluid movement. "Let's make a baby, Booth." She lowered herself until she was pressed against him, chest-to-chest, sliding her hands beneath his shoulders until she could curl her wiry fingers up and over one of her favorite Boothy-features. "I think," she started sucking just below his jaw, appreciative that he arched his neck to give her the access she desired. "We should start practicing tonight…"

"Practice," he inhaled quickly when he felt her sharp little teeth nip into his skin, "makes," he flexed his hands against her hips, "perfect." Unable to resist his dominant tendencies, he growled and rolled, tucking her firmly and carefully beneath his imposing frame. "And I know how important perfection is to you, Babe…" He wove his fingers into hers and pinned them against the pillow once again as he kissed her deeply.

Pulling back in need of oxygen he held her eyes for a moment. "You're gunna be an awesome Mom, Bones. Amazing." He swallowed her response as he lined himself up, his body knowing hers instinctively. And, as they made love again, Booth's mind was swimming with memories, and he felt unbelievably happy at the idea of his beautiful partner carrying his child. He knew they were not actually creating life in that moment, being well aware that Brennan was on birth control, but the mere thought of making a family, _a complete future_, with his woman was all the foreplay he needed as he got lost within her. His dark chocolate eyes never lost sight of her while she shattered beneath him once more, driven to ecstasy by his body as much as his words and promises.

Their baby would be beautiful.

Their baby would be brilliant _like her mother_.

And _dammit _their baby's mother would be his forever.

Just like he would be hers, until the day he died.

And, as Booth spooned in behind his partner with his hand splayed possessively atop Brennan's flat tummy, he started to succumb to the blissful world of fantasy dreams and a perfect universe. One final, _albeit_ _rather uninvited, _thought floated through his sexually-exhausted brain. It would be a cold day in hell before their child would _ever_ be permitted to spend unsupervised time with Uncle Jack at the lab... A _very_ cold day is Hell...

**Postscript A/N**

**I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of the prompts provided by ****RionaLeprechaunWingsGallagher****. Again, yes, I know it was quite a long OneShot, but the JazzyMuse does what the JazzyMuse wants. LOL **

**Please let me know your thoughts. **

**The blowing-up Gummy Bears experiment is real, though it is typically done with only one gummy at a time and it is, in fact, quite destructive to the glass equipment used in the test. But when I pictured Hodgins prepping for this, I totally saw him wild-eyed and frizzy-haired. Lol. Sort of like Gene Wilder in his film 'Young Frankenstein', for those of you old enough to remember that classic. **

**Let me take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for the holiday and new year, whatever holiday or solstice you may celebrate. I wish you all health, peace and love, and I thank you for your continued support over this past year with my crazy up-and-down posting schedule. **

**Be well, my friends. **

**Peace, **

**~jazzy**


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